


Pieces

by Rajani_the_Freak



Series: Seven Souls Fiction [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game), underswap
Genre: ACIDENTALY!?!?!?, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Carina acts like Rajani from Not Alone, Carina and Miranda swap, Carina doesn't have multiple personality, Carina lowkey acts like Miranda too, F/M, Frisk and Chara do not get along in this, Miranda and Sans have memories they shouldn't have, Miranda still had multiple personality, Slow burn? What's slow burn?, Time Shenanigans, Waterfall still wet though, add more tags later, but mostly like Rajani, but no flowers, dating before meeting?, hotland be frozen now, married before meeting??, only more!, places got swaped too, snowdin is now full of heat and sand, soul bonds, the ruins are still full of flowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 03:06:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16441817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak
Summary: When Miranda wakes up in the plane heading for the USA to meet her beloved sister she realizes that she had already lived that day before. It’s not just a sense of déjà vu, it is more than that. So much more… Who is this skeleton you can’t get out of your head and why do you feel so compelled to search for him and… WHY DO YOU FEEL ATTRACTED TO THE SKELETON!!!???You’re going to get to the bottom of this!(Series related to the fanfics ‘Not Alone’ and ‘Unbreakable’ but it isn’t necessary to read those to understand this one.)





	1. Prologue: And Dread The Day When Dreaming Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not Alone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8496931) by [Rajani_the_Freak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak). 
  * Inspired by [Unbreakable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16440416) by [Rajani_the_Freak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak). 



> Notes for those that read the other two seven souls fics before this one:
> 
> Because in _Unbreakable_ I exchanged Miranda for Rajani, I decided not to swap them for Underswap. Instead I united Miranda and Rajani from _Not Alone_ into one, with Rajani as major personality trait and inserted her into Carina's body and then took Carina, who was initially a Justice soul, made her have multiple personality in the past but having resolved that issue (her former other personality would have had a purple soul btw), and shoved her personality into Miranda's body. Oh! And the cats and dogs swapped personalities too, but it's not as noticeable.
> 
> General swap notes:
> 
> There are places in the underground that were inspired on the seasons like thus:  
> Ruins - Fall: hence why there's so many fallen leaves and such  
> Snowdin - Winter: Self-explanatory  
> Waterfall - Spring: Flowers and Spring rain  
> Hotland - Summer: All the heat
> 
> So, I decided to swap the Ruin's season with Watrefall's and Snowdin's with Hotland's. I got this idea from an underswap game that is being developed, but I'm not going to completely follow the changes in it to a T. I'll talk about other changes as them come into play.

\--Papyrus’ POV--

As he leaned further back om the chair, readying for a well-deserved nap, Papyrus couldn’t help but ponder on his brother’s latest oddities.

Not that he hadn’t noticed Sans acting odd before now, like the time he didn’t come home for two days, claiming to be at a sleep over. Then again Sans hadn’t really had that many friends before leaving the underground and seemed to be settling in much better than anyone ever thought he would.

That being said, his latest conversation with him boded for something far more serious than Sans slacking off a bit on his responsibilities to have a two-day-long slumber party.

Papyrus had arrived a bit late at the Monster’s Rights Conference and his brother looked frantic, more so than usual, as well as nervous.

“everything alright?” He’d asked with concern.

“PAPYRUS!” He screamed startled, having only noticed his much taller younger brother behind him, but instead of the usual remprimand, he went on to say. “J-JUST WHO I WAS LOOKING FOR! I-I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”

“erm… is everything ok, sans?” He’d asked, now even more concerned, foregoing any of his usual jokes.

“NO! W-WAIT! YES! ERM… MAYBE?”

And the concern levels kept rising.

“ok sans, what happened?” He asked as calmly as he could, knowing even the tiny bit of any other state of mind would just induce a nervous breakdown on the smaller skeleton, considering his current state.

“I… MWEH! WHERE DO I EVEN START…”

“Sansy! Pappy! We’re going to start soon. We should go to our places.” Chara interrupted.

“OH! OK! LONG STORY SHORT! I’M GOING TO HAVE TO MOVE OUT OF THE COMPOUND AND INTO THE SLENDER HUMAN’S HOME BECAUSE I DID SOMETHING I SHOULDN’T HAVE AND I’LL TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT LATER, OK?” And with that very hasty sentence, Sans dashed off to the podium, leaving a very confused papyrus behind.

Only after a few moments did Papyrus finally decipher everything his brother had said and the ‘danger alert’ began ringing in his skull.

He tried to relax during the conference and only finally managed to do so after realizing that, no matter how worried he was, he couldn’t rush in to fix whatever Sans had done without knowing more about the subject and he wouldn’t be able to know more until after the conference, like Sans had said. Only then did Papyrus relax enough to find the prospect of a nap sufficiently appealing.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what sort of problem Sans had gotten himself into and how to get him out of it. Never mind, he’d just sleep on it.

He’d finally just started to doze off when a loud bang rang out, followed by terrified screaming. His eyes snapped open just in time to see Chara collapsing with a shocked expression and a spray of blood coming out of their chest. It wasn’t an instantly fatal wound, though, or Papyrus would have already woken up back in his bed in the underground.

Chaos followed as the whole world seemed to start going in slow motion and Papyrus couldn’t move as fast as he thought he ought to.

His brother was hit next. He could tell because Sans had been moving towards Chara and suddenly stopped in his tracks as his skull was impacted with something. Papyrus didn’t even have to see his face to know what expression his older brother would have on. He’d seen enough genocide routes to know by heart: Disbelief with a twinge of fear.

Then Chara must have finally died because he was plunged into darkness indicating a reset. God! Not another one! He could only hope that the kid stayed on the mercy route this time.

He woke up in his bed, wary of the new timeline. He always felt wary up until he saw Chara leave the ruins. How they looked when they left the ruins was the biggest indicator of if they were on a genocidal path or not. Still, that wasn’t a 100% guaranty that nothing would happen, but it went a big way into easing his worries. Well, nothing he could do about that.

Routine was so ingrained that he mentally started counting down until Sans slammed his door open to wake him up in his usual cheerful manner.

3…

2…

1…

And!

…

Nothing.

The more it took for Sans to show up, the more worried Papyrus got, so he got up an went searching for his sibling starting by the most obvious place: his bedroom.

When he heard sobbing he quickly rushed inside.

“sans! Is everything ok!?” He asked frantically.

It took a while for him to calm down before Papyrus could repeat the question with better results than more gross sobbing. Thankfully Papyrus was willing to wait if it meant helping his brother.

“E-EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT, BOTHER.”

“then why are you crying!?”

“I HAD A GOOD DREAM…”

“a… good dream?” Papyrus asked, feeling very much confused.

Shouldn’t his brother be happy, then?

“YEAH. BUT I WOKE UP AND REALIZED THAT NONE OF IT WAS REAL.”

Ah, that explained it… somewhat.

“i'm sorry, lil’bro.” He said, offering his open arms in invitation, which Sans immediately took.

His brother proceeded to cry bitterly, even more so than before. All the while Papyrus couldn’t help but wonder: just what the heck had his brother dreamt about?

Well, at least he could rest easy, knowing that he still didn’t remember the resets. There was no way that being forced to move to some human’s home due to an accident and then dying in a press conference would count as a good dream, after all.


	2. Chapter 1: I’m Feeling a Little Peculiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's not ok, but Miranda has no idea what.

You woke up in a panic, startling the person next to you. It took you a moment to realize where you were and why.

Your name is Miranda Castro and you’re 25 years old. You have three cats that you left with your father and you’re currently on a flight to America to live with your sister for a while as you get back on your feet.

Your sister’s name is Carina and she’s ten years older than you. In many ways she’s your opposite. Once you would even have gone as far as to say she’s the other side of your coin, but something that had happened to you in your teens proved that to be false, as well as serve for some very dark memories.

That being said, she was still completely different from you. She’s creative and successful with a big job on a studio, animating films -be they long or short-, while you were pretty fixed in your ideals and, while you liked a good story, you were further away from being creative than an ant. At least ants still built colonies.

No, the place you really shone at was in a courtroom. You had just recently finished an internship and had tried to get your own practice. Unfortunately, you weren’t well known enough on the field to et a steady set of costumers to pay the rent to your office.

That was another reason why you were coming to America to visit your sister. She really would be there for you in your time of need.

But right now that wasn’t what occupied your mind

As soon as you realized where you were -and apologizing to the startled passenger-, your attention turned to the oddly realistic, and yet entirely too fantastical, dream you’d just had.

A lot of it was now hazy to your recollection, yet you still remembered enough of it to recall what had happened in it, even if the faces of the other people were covered in fog. You dreamt that you’d lived for seven months, give or take, in America. Somehow, not long after you arrived a kid had gone missing from an abusive foster home, disappeared into a mountain and then returned with a whole new race of intelligent beings from Mount Ebbot. They then became the monster ambassador for some strange reason.

You’d met several monsters on those months, somehow fallen in love, and then you’d been watching television and there’d been a shooting on the monster press conference and the last thing you remember was watching the monster mascot -‘Sans’ your mind screamed at you- getting shot in the forehead and turning to dust right in front of you as your chest lurched with pain and loss.

Had he been one of the monsters you’d met? You simply couldn’t remember any faces, no matter how much your tried to but he was the only one that made your mind scream a name at you. You seemed to recall a skeletal hand holding yours whenever you tried to recall more about him. He must be really skinny, then. 

Still, all this begged the question: Had you loved him, if only just in your dream? Was that why your chest hurt when you’d seen him die?

But then why was it still aching? Did your dream somehow mistake a heart attack for a broken heart and transferred it to the dream? Were you having a heart attack right now!?

You forced yourself to calm down. If you were indeed having a heart attack, panicking was only bound to aggravate the issue for sure. Once calm, you noticed that your chest still ached but it didn’t seem to be an attack. That was good enough for you… for now.

The warning for you to put the belt on lit up, meaning you were about to land.

The plane still had to circle the airport twice before a landing lane was available. Somehow you remembered something like this happening in the dream too… or was it just a misplaced feeling of déja-vù? It was probably the later. If it had been your sister in your place, you were sure she would have immediately started a storyline based on your freaky dream and déja-vù.

Hmm…

Maybe you would tell her later in case she liked it, even if it hadn’t come from her mind.

You momentarily searched for your belongings, which were thankfully the first to appear, and headed to the exit where several people awaited, some with signs on hand. You didn’t even spare them a look and headed to a nearby vase with a big bush.

“Hi, Carina.” You greeted.

The bush shivered and a head popped out from behind it.

“No fair! How did you know I was here?” Your sister complained.

“You’ve done it before.”

Carine stopped fake-pouting and looked at you in confusion.

“What are you talking about? This is the first you’ve come to America. I never got a chance to prank you since I’m always the one going to Lisbon.”

It was now your turn to stop and look at her in confusion.

“You’re right! But then why do I…” You pondered.

Why _did_ you remember her pranking like this once before?

“Maybe you developed future vision and predicted I would be here!!” Carina suggested excitedly, her eyes close to having stars in them like the characters of the show she was referencing.

“Yeah… Look, I’m not a cartoon character, ok? I seriously doubt I’m in that sort of situation.” You denied your sister’s fantasy.

“Boo! You’re no fun!” She retorted. “You need to learn to have a better sense of humor, and a bit of fantasy in your life certainly wouldn’t do you any harm.”

“Sure, I’ll consider that later.” You said, but both of you knew you wouldn’t. “Anyway, could you get me an appointment with a cardiologist before we go home?” You asked.

“Cardiologist!? Wait, are you ok, sis? Are you hurting somewhere?”

“Calm down!” You interrupted her forcefully. “My chest is aching for no good reason but I’ve already ruled out heart attack. I just need to find out why is it hurting.” You reassured her.

After a moment of staring at you in concern she finally said:

“I have someone I know in the emergency staff of the hospital. And don’t fuckin’ try to argue with me! We’re going and that’s it!” She said and started dragging you to her car.

She drove like a maniac towards Auburn city and rushed to the emergency unit of the Saint Amelia Hospital of Auburn, talking to a nurse and you waited, feeling a bit foolish, in the waiting room. Your chest ache wasn’t something to make all this fuss about.

It didn’t take long for a nurse to come get you and, after a complete scan, they reached the conclusion that, though you heart was beating a bit faster than you usual, there was nothing really wrong with it and that it might just be stress.

Not surprising, all in all. You did just lose your workplace. Still, you didn’t think you were that stressed about it.

In the end you just shrugged and left the consultation room.

“So?” Carina asked as soon as you joined her in the waiting room.

“They said I’m fine and that it’s just stress.” You relayed.

“That’s a relief.” She sighed.

Just as she stood up to leave, a child service agent entered, carrying a battered child, followed by three more that looked a bit bruised. With him were also two police officers. You stopped and watched to see how different the procedures were from your country.

It seemed like the kids had just come from an abusive foster home and they needed the staff to catalogue all of the injuries for evidence, as well as heal them.

“Also related to this: have you seen this kid here today? They ran away before we got to the scene and are still missing.” One of the police officer’s showed the nurse a photo.

After carefully analyzing the picture, the nurse handed it back.

“Sorry, unfortunately that kid hasn’t shown up here as of yet.” She said. “I can post the picture here if you want.”

“That would help us a lot, ma’am.” The other officer said. “We appreciate it.”

“Oh, it was no trouble, I assure you.”

As they exchanged platitudes back and forth, the nurse copied the photograph and wrote ‘Have you seen this kid? Please contact Auburn Police Department.’ Underneath. She then used two pieces of tape to secure it to the wall and you were finally able to the the elusive face of the missing kid.

Big brown eyes with a solid tint of red smiled at you from a pale face with a strong case of rosacea reddening their cheeks. Framing their face were dense strands of reddish brown hair that was cut at the level of their chin.

Suddenly something in your mind clicked into place as you stared in dreaded disbelief at the picture.

You had finally been able to allocate a face to one of the people in your dream.

“CHARA!?”


	3. Chapter 2: Searching and Scouring for Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda sets out to find answers and a whole underground civilization.

You remembered frowning at the television in the morning as the news reported a kid missing. You were a bit jet lagged and weren’t able to pay it any mind.

You remembered the breaking news of the missing kid having made their way out of Mount Ebbot with a whole population of monsters, all the while insisting on being their ambassador. You thought the news crew was pranking the America population and scoffed that it wasn’t April’s Fools yet.

You remembered all the legislation being passed for monsters’ rights the following weeks as the kid took charge against all nay-sayers. You were in disbelief that the news was actually real, then a bit afraid since you didn’t really know anything about monsters, as well as amused at your sister’s enthusiasm in the topic.

You remembered that a short skeletal monster you seemed to be fond of as he pointed out his best friend. You weren’t that surprised since you seemed to recall he’d told you about them before hand and you had seen them playing together and talking on the news and tabloids before. You didn’t really get the chance to talk to Chara before they left in a rush to another political meeting, taking your skeletal friend/crush with them.

You remembered watching the live feed featuring the latest press conference regarding monster rights as a shot rang out and the kid collapsed, blood spilling out of their chest in an arch, accompanying their fall. Your horror froze you in place as you prayed ‘ _Please not Sans! Please not Sans! Please not Sans! Please not Sans!_ ’ only to see him get shot in the forehead and feeling your heart lurch…

You remembered Chara.

“Sis… ? Do you know that kid?” You suddenly realized that your sister was trying to get your attention.

“I’m hoping not, because if the kid really turns out to be called Chara I’ll think I just became some sort of Mary Sue in a messed-up fanfic some grief-stricken, crazy weirdo with trust issues decided to write.” You replied with a shudder

There was no way those dreams might be true! …Was there?

“I’ll go check. Wait right here!” Carina said with a concerned look before dashing towards the officers.

After a short exchange of words, you were too far away to listen to, your sister returned with a slightly freaked out look.

“Sorry, sis.” She said gravely. “You just became a Mary Sue, though I still have no idea why you think so.”

“Oh, no!” You grumbled.

“Do you know something about Chara?” She asked after a pause.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” You said, but then, after pondering for a bit, you corrected. “Never mind. You would believe me and be quite excited about it. It’s everyone else that wouldn’t.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, especially since their name being the same is still not enough evidence for me.”

“Then get some more! If you can, that is.” She said in encouragement.

“More evidence?”

You could wait until Chara emerged from the underground with the monsters in a few weeks… But your heart rebelled at waiting for so long, all your thoughts focusing on a monster whose face you couldn’t even remember for the life of you, but whose name rang in your head with urgency for some fantastical reason.

Something was screaming that you shouldn’t have to wait. You should just go there in you knew where to go, not wait. A memory screaming to be remembered.

And for once in your life you decided to throw caution to the wind.

“Let’s go home. I have a backpack to prepare!” You said with conviction as Carina became even more confused.

As confused as she was, she still took you to her apartment. You had to avoid getting a lick down from her three dogs and locked yourself away in the guestroom, taking a few essentials from your suitcase and grabbing one of your sister’s backpacks.

That done, since it was already night time, you decided to go on your way in the morning and get a full night’s sleep.

You dreamt again, this time all the memories were about Sans and Sans alone. More specifically, Sans was showing you where Chara had fallen on the underground. It had been a few days after he’d tried to introduce you to them.

He’d said that, since Chara wasn’t there to introduce themselves, Sans would do it for them and tell you about all he knew about their journey to the underground, starting by how they got there in the first place.

You’d listened raptly, but your attention hadn’t been focused solely on what he was saying. Sometimes you were too busy checking him out to listen to his words.

Next morning you woke up wondering just how the heck were you feeling attracted to what you were becoming surer with each hour was a skeleton. Or at the very least a very anorectic monster, though you seriously doubted it from what few glimpses of him you could catch. And you meant attraction in the physical sense to boot!

You decided to ignore those thoughts for now. You just hoped they somehow made sense when you finally remembered Sans again.

You tried to leave as discretely as possible, thinking your sister and her dogs were still asleep in her room. As soon as you exited the building you saw her, dressed like she was ready to take on the Amazonian jungle, with her trusty dogs at her side.

You groaned and facepalmed.

“What are you groaning about!? Let’s go already!” Carina said, dragging you towards her car. “So, I know I haven’t asked yet but… Where to?”

“Mount Ebbout.”

“Oooooo! The mountain of the missing! I like it! I’m not sure about your outfit, though.”

And she was right. You were dressed like you were about the win a lawsuit in your favor and not like you were going to take a walk in the forest. But you couldn’t care less at the moment. Something in you was very particular about this set of clothes and you decided to go with it.

“I want to look my best.” You said at last, feeling it was partially true.

“For the kid!?”

“No.”

“…what?”

You ignored your sister’s confused expression and started giving her directions to the right side of the mountain. Once there you started to climb up, going too fast for your sister, even while wearing heels in a rough terrain. It took you no time to find the hole.

“This is it.” You said. “I’m going to go down. If I don’t come back you-” And carina jumped down and grabbed some roots that were jutting out of the hole further down.

“This is a stable enough root for all of us.” She explained. “Take the rope I left there, loop it around a tree and toss the ends at me.”

You did so and then, under her guidance, started lowering her dogs, using their harnesses. You then lowered your backpacks and them yourself.

From that think root you then went to a lower root and so on until you finally reached the ground.

“Oof! That was thrilling! Where to next, lil sis?” Carina asked without a care in the world.

“Sure… Well, now we go-” You interrupted yourself when you saw a gigantic shadow move down the hallway towards you.

“Whoever it was, they clearly hadn’t looked up and was walking while staring at the ground, for they had yet to notice you.

It wasn’t until the figure got closer that you saw who it was and recognized him.

You never got to meet him face to face, but you did hear about him from Sans and saw him on television.

It was then that he looked up and saw you. He was initially startled and you saw his eyes spark as if he was about to use magic. Then he calmed down and seeing unarmed.

“Oh dear! I didn’t expect for more young ones to have found their way here!” He said.

“Hello your majesty.” You said politely as your sister was midst blowing a fuse. She them proceeded by blowing up verbally as well.

“HE’S A KING!?! She bellowed. “This is the coolest day in my life!!!”

You facepalmed.

King Asgore, on the other hand, was quite startled.

“Who are you?” He asked you, taking a defensive stand. “How do you know about that?”

“Yeah! how did you know he’s a king?” Carina asked with suspicion.

“Well, since this proves it was all real… I guess I can tell you.” You reluctantly admitted. “During the last plane ride here, I woke up from some sort of dream. A dream where a kid went missing for some time and then returned from Mount Ebbot with a whole race of other beings. Monsters. They were the Ambassador for Monsterkind and were passing along laws for monster rights. I thought it had been just a crazy dream but then I saw Chara’s picture and remembered that was the kid I’d seen.” You told them. “I didn’t even remember their name or what they looked like until I saw the picture. Just like I didn’t remember who was Monsterkind’s king or his name until I saw King Asgore, here.”

“So you do have future vision!” Carina commented.

“If so then how can I change the future by being here at all? This isn’t how I was supposed to meet you, king Asgore. I don’t think I actually did meet get to meet you face to face in my dream.” You said.

“Psh! As if the future is a fixed thing. You should see Steven Universe. Garnet also has future vision and it’s definitely not fixed in one outcome alone.” Carina commented.

“Carina, I’m not a cartoon!” You ground out.

“This it all very peculiar. If it weren’t for the fact that a child has just crossed the RUINS easily, I might have had doubts about your character. As it is, I can’t help but wonder why you didn’t wait for Chara to bring us all out of the underground.” King Asgore inquired gently.

“I… I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.” You said. “There’s… There’s someone I just have to meet and I don’t know why I’m so frantic about it when I can’t remember his face, just his name.” You admitted.

“I see… well! Whatever the case, I can’t let you leave the ruins without making sure you can defend yourselves or, at the very least, dodge. The underground is dangerous, after all.” King Asgore asserted.

“He is right.” Carina admitted and you groaned in exasperation at another delay. “I’ll go first! This ought to be interesting!”

You stepped back to allow for her to battle. Her dogs stayed at her side, however.

They entered a battle and you saw hearts coming out of their chests.

Asgore’s was upside down with a somewhat opaque white outer layer but that shone green from within. Your mind remembered another heart like that, but with an indigo inner light. Your mind also recalled that they were monster souls.

You looked at your sister and saw a right side up heart with a translucid indigo outer layer and a same colored opaque core. In your mind’s eye you recalled such a heart but in yellow. They were human souls.

Then you saw the little hearts standing in front of each of her dogs’ chests. Hades had a green heart, Iris had a cyan heart and Nucha had an orange heart. They resembled Carina’s but didn’t have an outer layer. Your mind wasn’t telling you anything now, so you assumed those were animal souls.

The battle lasted longer than you wanted, but you couldn’t not congratulate your sister on her prowess.

You were next.

You stepped forward and felt a familiar sensation of tugging at your chest and then a sudden feeling of emptiness.

In front of you was the yellow soul you’d seen, but there was something different. There was a sort of indigo mist floating around it as if protecting it.

“Oh my!” Was King Asgore’s sudden outburst.

“What is that!? Is it bad?” Carina asked.

As for you, you merely had a sinking feeling as your mind started recalling another soul related incident.

“Not at all. I just was unaware humans were capable of bonding the way monsters do.” Was King Asgore’s explanation.

“Bonding!?” Was Carina’s confused question.

“H-fow can this be!? This only happened in my dream!” You said at last.

“What? I don’t understand.” Carina continued in her antrum of confusion.

“Bonding is what monsters call to the consummation of marriage the monster way, only far more binding since uniting two souls into one is not reversible. It is a very intimate moment and it leaves a mark after the first time.” Asgore explained.

“YOU’RE MARRIED!?!?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be. Not yet anyway. And it was an accident!”

“WHAT!?” This time the exclamation came from the both of them.

“What do you meant it wasn’t supposed to have happened yet?” Continued your sister.

“How exactly does one bond accidentally?” Continued Asgore.

“Please calm down.” You begged.

King Asgore was the first to attain calm.

“Have you considered that, instead of you seeing the future… your soul has traveled back in time? That would explain why you are soul bonded even though it hasn’t happened yet.” Was his suggestion.

“Is that possible?” Carina asked.

“It makes much more sense than Miranda bonding virginly via future vision, young one.” Was the reply.

“True.” Carina allowed. “I’m still a bit miffed that I didn’t get invited to a wedding, though. Did I at least meet your hubby and approved of him?”

“Erm… you met him a few times. We didn’t really tell anyone we went from friends to dating, though. We were waiting for things to cool down.” You said.

“And then you decided to elope!”

“It was an accident!!!”

“How does one soulbond by accident, though?” Asgore asked a bit more forcefully since his prior attempts had been ignored.

“Erm… well… we were playing a bit with each other’s souls. Carina had a big assignment and would be out for a few days so we had the apartment all to ourselves…” You blushed heavily, though your sister seemed to miss the implied foreplay completely. “The neighbours suddenly started drilling a hole in the wall or something and it startled my partner and he slipped and slammed on top of me. Because our souls were right there between us they got all smushed together…” You completed, blushing under King Asgore’s knowing eyes.

“How long did the bonding process last?” He asked with a teasing smirk and kind eyes. “Mine and my ex-wife’s lasted four days, since I am of royal status and a boss monster and so was she. It was quite tiring.”

“Erm… only two whole days.” You relayed hesitatingly.

“Impressive. Your souls must be really powerful.”

“Why is it that when I hear you talking about that in that way my mind thinks automatically of sex?” Carina asked innocently.

“Because you’re a perv.” You retorted.

“HEI! That’s totally right.”

“… and also because you wouldn’t be wrong about it.” You reluctantly admitted.

“WHAT!? Really? Two days of non-stop, mind jumbling, boning? You go, gurl!” You stiffened at ‘boning’ for some reason, which further cemented that the monster you were involved with was probably a skeleton. After pondering a bit, Carine continued. “Does that mean that playing with each other’s souls is a sexual thing?”

“One could definitely consider it that, young one.” Asgore confirmed.

“I wanna learn how to do that!!!” She immediately said.

“Carina… You don’t really feel anything when you touch your own soul…” You said, guessing correctly the reason why she said that.

“I don’t care, I still wanna do it!”

You were about to say it was impossible for humans to pull their own soul out when Asgore interrupted you.

“Usually monster parents teach their young how to do it when they have ‘The Talk’. However, I’m not opposed to teaching it to you, if you want.”

“You can do that?” You said, but it was overshadowed by your sister’s bellow.

“WHEN DO WE START?!”

“We can start as soon as we reach Home.” He said calmly, standing up from the patch of golden flowers he’d sat in while you talked. “And considering the accidental nature of your sister’s bonding, as well as her disbelieving comment just now, I think it might be a good idea for her to learn it as well.” He added, making you blush again.

After you arrived ‘Home’, Asgore prepared three mugs with golden flower tea and sat you both at the table.

For the next hour he told you all there was to know about monster sexuality, both regarding the actual physical act as well as the process of doing it via soul and how both processes could be used in conjunction with one another and in the most creative ways. He also talked about monster heats and that every monster had a cycle according to species, how babies conceived during the heats tended to be stronger, regardless of means of conception -which included the currently rare natural conception due to all the genetic mix-ups, as well as soul conception, which cause the genetic mix-ups in the first place-, and how different was the development of both kids of conceptions.

At least he added that only soulbonded couples could conceive using their souls and that it needed mutual consent for a baby to be created from such an encounter, whether conscious or unconscious., very unlike the biological way.

Finally, he started talking about soul handling and what was socially accepted and what wasn’t, like how the only acceptable way for a soul to be exposed publicly was during a fight and that you should always let a soul doctor be the one extracting the soul themselves instead of you doing it since it could be viewed as propositioning. He also said that to pull out your own soul in front of your partner instead of letting them do it for you was a symbol of ultimate trust and intimacy.

He then taught you how to pull your own souls out, something you hadn’t ever thought possible for humans before. Then again, the one you had been intimate with seemed to be only slightly less ignorant and new to the subject than you, though definitely far more enthusiastic.

That being said, you now could return his gesture full-heartedly and a part of you sincerely and dearly wanted to do that as soon as you were alone in a room with him, though your mind argued that you still didn’t remember him and, therefore, didn’t really know him. You decided to ignore that part if just for a bit. You couldn’t completely shut it down because you were far too logical for it.

After that, Asgore finally taught you exactly what a soulbond implied.

“When it come to soul bonding, there’s no turning back from it. You have to be really sure you want to go through with it before you decide to try it. Even then, if your souls aren’t sufficiently compatible, they might refuse the bond, which is why an accidental bond like young Miranda’s here, is unheard of. You and you mate must be so compatible to one another that no conscious consent was needed at all.” He said. “That being said, there are certain things that come hand-in-hand with a soul bond. I’m guessing you’d recently bonded before going back in time?”

“Yes, actually. He was going to tell his brother either before or after the conference, since he might be the greatest opposition. I never got to meet his brother because he was always busy but I was told he was very protective of his sibling, even though he was younger. Then I would tell my sister once she returned from her job because I trusted her not to wig out too much. Case in point.” You pointed to your sister who was calmly listening despite the recent news of your monster marriage.

“I thought so. Well, since you are recently bonded, that urge to meet your bonded mate is natural. Recently bonded mates don’t like to be away from one another for too long. They are also incredibly protective of each other, and very possessive as well. Chances are, once you meet with your bonded mate again, he’s going to hole you up in his room for some time.” Asgore said with a mischievous expression that made Carina perk up and say ‘sex?’ in reminiscence of ‘Finding Nemo’s seagulls with a very envious expression. Asgore continued. “Other things you’ll notice as bonded mates is that you can share your strength with him and him with you. You’ll always be stronger together in a fight than apart. The down side is if one of you were to die. Depending on personality, you would either be in such a depressive state that you might as well be dead, or filled with revenges if the death wasn’t natural, or trying to live for the both of you since you mate wouldn’t have wanted you to waste away if the death was natural. As for my situation with my ex-wife… that is a bit too complicated to go into, but it's a very rare circumstance. Not as unheard of as accidental soulbonding, but definitely not something that happens in normal circumstances. Is there any other question you two might have?” He asked.

You thanked him and said you didn’t. Asgore gave you another mug of freshly made tea as he went to talk to a friend in a instant to help you find your bonded mate in the underground since most of it was still pretty dangerous to cross.

You both decided to wait sitting on the front porch, finishing your tea. You pondered on how you hadn’t really seen much of the Ruins in your rush to get to Home. According to Sans, though he didn’t really visit The Ruins before the barrier broke, the place was beautiful, especially considering King Asgore’s propensity for gardening. Of the few glimpses you managed to catch in the midst of all your Sans-centered worries, you had to agree. There were flowers every freaking where, even in the cracks of the walls and there were so many water lilies in the water and of so many different colors that no one would guess there wasn’t any ground to step on underneath the foliage.

For now, though… no matter how curious you were to explore The Ruins, you preferred to keep focused on your soul-deep urgency in rushing forwards to the rest of the underground. It disconcerted you how much this unquenchable thirst molded your every action. You were not the type to rush ahead. So, you had to force yourself to remember that rushing ahead could be the opposite of beneficial. That sometimes you needed to stop and think. That sometimes… you needed to stop and smell the flowers.


	4. Chapter 3: Life in Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus POV and Miranda and co finally leave the ruins and arrive to...

\--Papyrus’ POV--

 

At the end of day 1 after the 156th reset, Papyrus had to come out and say it: His brother was _not_ ok.

Gone was the cheerful brother he was used to, replaced by a depressed and restless one. One moment he seemed to me sulking, looking hopeless like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, the next one he was rushing off, stating that he was going for a run around the _whole_ underground, and he really did mean the whole underground. He literally checked every small crevice in his runs as if searching for something he lost. Even Alphys had noticed something was wrong, though she had yet to make a move in order to help him. She was probably waiting to see if he bounced back or if he really needed her assistance.

By the end of the day Papyrus had gone to have the typical conversation with Asgore making him promise to keep the human safe. Fortunately, that one went as normal as usual.

Next morning Chara came out of the ruins looking cheerful as dust-free, usually -though not always- a good sign. They did their typical routine of a supposed first meeting, which Papyrus only followed out of habit before he finally couldn’t help himself and broke script.

This was also unheard off. Papyrus simply refused to break script even under duress. But this time… This time was different. Something was very wrong with Sans and he needed to get to the bottom of it. So, he warned Chara of his brother’s odder than usual behaviors.

Chara merely wondered if it had been due to the headshot he’d received, since no monster had ever had their skull damaged in any way before. This made it so that Chara didn’t bother hiding when Sans walked into the clearing, hoping for a insta-cheer-up. That action caused a shiver on Papyrus, since Chara usually only refused to hide in genocidal timelines, but it definitely worked.

Sans, who’d been downtrodden until then, instantly perked up upon seeing them. He then started rushing the kid through his traps. Chara refused to be rushed, though. In fact, they seemed to find Sans’ new attitude amusing.

They were now stuck in a part where usually Sans tried to rearrange the puzzle into looking like his face but the puzzle froze into the ground. This time, Sans had tried to make it easier to solve but, when it froze, it made it harder instead. While this seemed to frustrate Sans, Chara seemed to enjoy the challenge.

Papyrus decided to go back to the door to the ruins. It didn’t happen always, but sometimes Asgore would be there for him to talk to. He’d come to realize the former king only did that on the runs where Chara went all the way back to the place they had fallen to after their battle to try and talk to him. The times that Chara simply moved on without a glance back, Asgore would usually be too distraught to return home so soon.

Chara didn’t seem to have taken too long to come out of the ruins and probably hadn’t done that, but Papyrus could never be completely sure so he did his usual check-up anyway.

And Asgore really was there. Just goes to show those nay-sayers about assuming. You know: it makes and ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’.

After an unusually short exchange of jokes between the two, Asgore finally asked him about his brother and if he was still trying to offer slices of quiche to everyone.

“to be honest, my brother has been acting rather odd lately.” He confided.

“Indeed? How so?”

“there was one day he woke up from a good dream and spent the whole day depressed because it wasn’t real. he was going from hopeless to running all over the underground.” He said.

“Was he perhaps looking for a way out? A place where the barrier might be weaker?” The old man asked.

“don’t know. didn’t ask. you think he really might me looking for an exit?”

“He did have a good dream according to you, did he not? The way he’s acting he does seem to be looking for a way out.”

“true…”

“Things have become odd this week. There’s someone that might know what’s wrong with your brother on this side. At least, the symptoms you describe seem to match.”

“that’s probably hapstablook. since he’s a ghost he can easily go over there. he lives in twinkling hollows and might have seen my brother pass by him.” Papyrus dismissed.

“I see… What would you say if I told you I saw someone else with similar symptoms? And it certainly wasn’t a ghost.” Asgore suddenly asked and then completely changed topics. “OH! It seems I have someone calling me. Shall we meet again tomorrow?”

“w-wait-”

“Goodbye, dear friend.” And with that he left.

…

So it seemed there were other odd behaviors to be seen on the other side of the door. Just Sans’ odd behavior alone was already noticed on this side of the door to the point even Queen Toriel was concerned. That being said, the fact that someone else was reacting in a similar way concerned Papyrus. It made his newly developed theory that Sans somehow was starting to remember the surface from the resets crumble a bit as the worry that so many resets were starting to break the more susceptible monsters mentally started to rise. 

He wanted to ponder on it for a bit more but he was starting to get a bit late to his next checkpoint with Chara so he wasn’t able to dwell on it. With a steadying breath, he prayed for strength and teleported away.

 

\--Your POV--

 

You called out to Asgore as your sister took the mugs back to the kitchen and set them on the sink.

You were a bit surprised when the king emerged from the basement stairs instead from outside the house.

“Yes, young one?”

“Oh! There you are! We’ve finished our tea and were hoping to set off. We couldn’t just leave without saying goodbye or asking if you wanted to come with us.” You said, and then added. “Also, we don’t know where to go next.”

You saw Asgore’s saddened face but, before he could comment, your sister came out of the house.

“Hey, have you seen my dogs?” She asked.

“No? Urgh! Don’t tell me they ran off!” You grunted in aggravation.

You were starting to get sick and tired of all the delays.

“Lighten up, sis. They can’t be that far.” Carina said lightheartedly.

“I’m sure I can help you find them quicker.” Asgore intervened.

And so you went back into The Ruins to collect your sister’s canines.

Turned out, they weren’t even on the same place, completely spreading out. The first you actually managed to find was Iris, who had fallen into a trap and was running around a ghost trying to jump on him and lick him silly, all the while failing completely. He still seemed to appreciate her gesture even if she went through him.

“Oh! I-is she yours?” He asked when he finally noticed your presence. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to monopolize her time, darlings.”

“It’s ok. As her owner, I’m more than familiar with how irresistible her puppy-dog face is.” Carina rushed to reply as you rolled your eyes.

“O-Oh, no! I’m boring you, aren’t I? Oh no!” The ghost started as soon as he saw your eye roll.

“Never mind her! She’s just impatient to see her hubby. Newly bonded apparently. You know how it is…” She continued teasingly, making you narrow your eyes in warning.

“Oh my! I wasn’t aware that humans could bond!”

“They can when their partner is a monster, apparently. And it also seems that bonds last even if one were to go back in time, it seems.”

“Carina!” You interrupted her. “Don’t you think you are giving too much information?”

“What! I didn’t even mention your incredible stamina of two full days of non-stop steamy humping!”

“TWO DAYS!” Was the ghost’s outburst. “Your mate must be powerful. Oh, you just have to tell me about it!”

“Carina!” You shouted out completely ticked off. “I’m going to look for the other dogs! Don’t lose sight of Iris!”

As you left the trap you heard her say: “Oh, don’t worry, she’s just shy and I do love teasing her.”

You ended up finding Hades ‘playing’ with a Froggit. Of course, the Froggit didn’t see it that way. Hades, though playful and would never hurt a fly, looked quite intimidating. In the end you had to calm down both the dog and the monster before you could proceed.

Somehow, while you were distracted, your sister bypassed you and managed to find Nucha as well as living wisps of fire.

“Aren’t they so cute!?” Carina said, pointing at the floating wisps.

They were small, so small that two could comfortably fit in your hand, they were tinged with greenish-blue color, like someone had added copper to the flame. Glowing in pale yellow amidst the flames were two fiery eyes and, at time, little yellow mouths.

You had to admit: they were pretty cute.

“They are but why do I have the feeling that there’s more to that question than what I could ever care about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing bad. I’m merely giving them a lift.” She said enthusiastically.

“…why?” You asked cautiously.

“Well, the rest of their family is already outside of The Ruins and, while they could easily pass through, when The Ruins’ door was permanently closed they would have to try and fit through the gap and it’s pretty damp in Asgore’s basement, apparently.” She explained. “There’s also the fact that there’s this place in between their family and here that is very wet and I did bring rain coats with us just in case. They could ride us under the raincoats to stay dry!”

You lifted an eyebrow at her offering you to serve as a noble steed for the wisps without asking you. Years of knowing you came in handy for her to correctly interpret your expression.

“Aw! Come on! These poor little guys haven’t met their family in decades, if not centuries! Come on, just until after the wet place!” She begged.

“Ok…” You agreed reluctantly and she tackled you with a hug and all the wisps followed her example.

Asgore merely observed, feeling entertained, though a bit guilty over having helped segregate the wisps’ family, no matter how accidental it might have been. 

Finally, Asgore lead you back to his house and down to the cellar where you confirmed there was indeed a door. Who would have thought that had been there all along?

Asgore opened the heavy stone door and let you all through.

“Aren’t you coming?” You asked when you noticed he wasn’t following.

“No, young one. If what you said is true, I need to ready the others to leave as soon as the barrier is open. Of course, I’m not going to tell them that just yet, since you don’t know how it happened either. I’ll try to join you after this.” he explained.

“Ok.” You said, feeling a bit sad at his absence. “See you soon.”

“Goodbye, young ones.”

“Goodbye.” You answered in unison.

The door to Asgore’s cellar closed behind you. You followed the long hallway as the temperature got higher and higher. The wisps, that had followed close to your body for heat and keeping the humidity at bay, were now floating freely as the heat dried the air around you.

You finally reached the second door as pushed. As soon as you got it a bit open you were hit with a blast of hot arid air.

“What’s a desert doing under a mountain!?” Was Carina’s startlen question as soon as her eyes adapted.

“Magic.” You told her as if it explained everything.

You both watched the rocky desert with traces of sand and the typical desert flora. It looked like you’d stepped into a western movie set.

“Welcome to Sandy Expanse.” You said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, i decided to call all the desert area Sandy Expanse, but the town itself has it's own name. The name isn't a lame as it would have been if Asgore was still ruling but just lame enough to express how much Toriel misses him.


	5. Chapter 4: Wishin’ My ‘Guy’ Was By My Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group explores Sandy expanse and reach the town, desperate for some hydration. Also, a clear case of meeting the in-laws.

You took off some layers of clothes like the inner shirt you had on you or the pantyhose until you considered them light enough, yet still formal enough to meet your in-law. You were thankful Sans had described to you all the areas of the underground, letting you get ready for this scenario, though you still weren’t expecting this much heat.

Your sister, on the other hand, had to undress until she was only wearing a bra, some shorts you lent her, which initially were for you to wear when the formalities were over, and a pair of sandals -once again yours. Thank god she wasn’t shy.

The fire wisps floated around happily, energized by the different weather as your sister’s dogs started panting a little.

You had brought plenty of water… for yourself. You hadn’t expected Carina or her dogs to come along. The good news was that she’d brought water as well, though not nearly enough for the whole trip.

“Let’s hit the road. I don’t know how far we’ll have to walk in this weather.” You told them and they promptly agree with you, the wisps more out of sympathy for their rescuer than from actual need.

Apparently, they could live on hot weather but not too hot and not for too long, which was weird for a flame monster. Something about their magic interacting poorly in the presence of a kind of monsters called Pyropes, who loved this sort of weather? It seemed that when Pyropes got too hot, like they tended to do since they got a thrill from it, they accidentally started syphoning the wisps’ magic. Apparently only their caregiver and patron could withstand the syphoning but, for obvious reasons, preferred to stay away from Sandy Expanse and stay with his family in cold, yet dry regions that the Pyropes avoided. Eventually a wisp could grow large enough to become flame elementals and withstand the pull from the Pyropes, but that didn’t happen until they were much, much older. 

You started walking and, as you crossed the dunes and avoided cacti, you ran across several monsters, most of those looking alarmed that two more humans had entered the underground, which quickly turned to confusion and some times relaxation when they noticed the fire wisps surrounding your group.

Some monsters did challenge you to fights, mostly brash kids or Expanse Sentries.

Carina agreed happily to all challenges, even the ones you could potentially avoid, much to your chagrin since you just wanted to see your mate again. The longer you had to wait, the more frantic you felt about it.

She mostly ‘fought’ her challenges alone, usually by dodging and making conversation, which more often involved flirting, until the opponents got tired, or by pretending to hit them and giving them martial arts lessons which, according to her, they sorely needed since they didn’t seem able to actually dodge. However, there were times in which monsters, usually sentries, insisted that you participate in the battle as well and the only ones that ever let you leave the battle after seeing your soul was an homosexual couple of a muscular rabbit monster and some sort of and equally muscular batwing-eared monster.

They congratulated you on your bonding and asked, like many others before, how long had the bonding process lasted. They were the only ones, upon seeing your embarrassed expression, that explained that it was usual for monsters asking each other how long the process was for the sake of figuring out how magically strong a couple was. The wisps then added that part of it was for the whole social status thing, in the more snobbish monsters, but it mostly was a way for monsters to go gaga over how strong your bond was and romantic it must be for the bond to last so long, even if the amount of love in the relationship had nothing to do with the level of magic. It was apparently a common superstition since studies had only correlated the time it took to bond with magic level much later.

That couple of sentries were quite amazed at your whole two days since, they had only lasted half a day on theirs.

At some point you found a sentient sand castle who asked if you would be willing to take a bottle of her sand with you as you traveled the underground since she couldn’t leave that spot and, that way, she would see the whole underground. Carina decided to name the castle Hogwarts and agreed to the request the sand castle was thrilled at having a name, though the meaning was lost on her.

Finally, when your water bottles were almost empty, you reached a sign that read ‘Welcome to the Town of Summerdale, Sandy Expanse’ in front of a town that resembled ones of those wild west towns to the point you sort of expected to see sheriffs with golden stars on their chests, cowboys and so on.

By now the magic lighting up the cave to make it look like it was day time had dimmed to a sundown sort of setting. Even the cave’s walls, way up high, were turning to various shades of pink, purple and blue.

The monsters in town didn’t pay them much attention as your group wondered through the streets.

Your sister was starting to ponder on getting a room in the local NTT hotel for tourism, which was pretty expensive, when you came across a small café. All of you were pretty parched, including the wisps, though they preferred alcoholic beverages, so you decided to go in.

The over all ambiance of the café seemed like a crossover between western salons and the goth Lolita style, with lots of purple shades tossed in. It was odd how the two styles could be so tastefully combined, the fact was that both styles were used in such a way that they actually complemented each other.

Inside you could recognize a group of sentries, some of which you’d met, playing Pictionary around a table. There were also several other monsters, likely townspeople, and one table even included a set of fiery monsters that were pretty close to burning the only stone table and chairs in the place with their heat. You figured those were the pyropes the wisps had told you about as decided to stay well away from them. They all seemed pretty unconcerned with your presence there. It was either that they felt safe so long as the sentries were there or because of the sign on the wall that stated that all the monsters that fought inside the café would be forbidden from being served for life and the next time they attempted to enter, they would be fed to the owner’s pet.

You selected a table big enough for all of your while the dogs tried to make friends with everyone. You read the menu, quickly realizing how spider themed everything was. So you weren’t surprised when a petite humanoid spider monster appeared from a door with the words THE DRAIN on top, and skated between the tables bearing a platter of croissants in one hand, one of donuts in another, a last one of cider in another and a bill and some change in yet another. She sure was a busy bee… erm… spider. On the feet was a pair of rollerblades that she used for speed. 

Her five eyes blinked in surprise at your presence, but she kept her professionalism as she continued to serve the other customers.

Once all the food was served and the change delivered she finally approached you.

“Good evening. What will it be for you, dearies?” She asked quietly.

“Good evenin’ ma’am! We would all like some ciders and I believe my dogs would appreciate some water, if you could. I would like to try one of those croissants. You sis?

“I would like a donut, please” You answered dutifully.

Carina then asked the wisps who would share two donuts and two croissants between them, as they were too small to eat one each on their own.

The spider monster, Muffet if the café’s name was anything to go by, noted down your picks and went to another table of recently arrived monsters.

In no time she’d brought your dogs bowls of water and you were served your food and drinks. You also noticed bowls with meet set aside for the dogs. The donut was delicious, for something made out of spiders, and you would definitely like to go there again.

It was then that a skeleton entered the café and started greeting the other costumers, making small talk. You were quickly assaulted by memories. You had seen this skeleton before.

Like with Chara, you’d first saw him on the news. For someone so tall, he had very little presence. He never really said anything unless directly addressed and even what he did say wasn’t very personal, though he sure had charm to spare so as not to make it noticeable. It was as if he was a natural at keeping others at bay.

Be that as it may, you weren’t much interested on that monster aside from questioning how he did what was considered to be the normal bodily functions if he had no organs or muscles. Stuff like walking and eating.

After you met Sans, he constantly referred to something or other his brother had done. You had been bemused at some of his antics and annoyed by proxy at others.

Then you and Sans started dating but you both feared that would affect the campaign for monster rights. It was already going to be hard getting them rights as it was, let alone if they added the whole interspecies relationship thing rolling into it. Adding to that the fact that his brother was sure to do _anything_ for Sans, including the status quo regarding relationships, you both opted not to tell him anything. Because of that very same reason you had decided not to say anything to your sister or anyone else.

Other reasons why you told neither of them two in specific was because you had a feeling that Papyrus was pretty overprotective and your sister would be so supportive her first question would be how did you fuck a skeleton -and you were now pretty sure Sans was one.

You don’t remember ever actually meeting him face to face, or in any other way, though. You probably never did. You somehow got the sense that your relationship with Sans had mostly been that of friends and you’d only started dating a few months before… the conference.

So this was the very first time seeing your newly acquired in-law in the fle- er… bone.

This was Papyrus, a person you could almost say you knew from everything Sans had told you about him and your brother-in-law for better or for worse.

“Do you know that monster?” Your eerily perceptive sister asked.

“I’ve never met him face to face, but I’ve heard a lot about him.” You admitted.

“From who?”

“My bonded mate.”

“Oh, cool.” She concluded, turning back to look at the monster who had yet to notice you. “I wonder… do skeletons only have soul sex for the lack of parts or do they just pop off one of their bones and just… literally bone each other.”

You took a spit take at her question. You knew she would have eventually wondered about it, you just hadn’t expected it would be the first thing she brought up. Little did she know you were very well versed on how skeletons did the horizontal tango.

“Carina! What sort of question is that!?” You shouted out, still surprised.

Your outburst did manage to make Papyrus notice your presence at last.

He froze, looking at you, and then went directly to the counter and got a bottle of sorts. He then made his way to your group.

“hello, i don’t think i've ever seen you here before.” Papyrus said in a relaxed tone that you weren’t expecting.

“It would have been odd if you had, considering we just got here today.” Carina said flirtingly as you eyed the bottle he was holding, noting that it was honey.

Odd.

“So, honeybones…” Apparently your sister had also noticed it too, and she was leaning forward, offering a flattering view of her bra-clad breasts. “I can already tell you come here often. Shall we skip that line? Better yet, shall we skip the whole conversation and go straight to the end game?”

“Carina!” You shouted out as Papyrus sputtered in surprise.

You could see a faint orange blush on his cheeks.

“oh, wow. that’s new. at least coming from someone that isn’t drunk.” Papyrus commented once he recovered, though his cheeks were still a nice shade of salmon.

“Hey! That was only once!” Some other regular costumer retorted indignantly.

“What? I’m curious, available and haven’t had anything for months and he _did_ approach us first.” Carina justified herself casually. “Besides, I sensed some underlying threat from the sudden questioning and just wanted to make a dude sweat. Was I wrong?” She asked the skeleton. “I don’t believe you just innocently approached us. I see guys with second intentions like you by the dozen.”

“Oh, so that’s why…” You said.

Your sister was so smart.

“Plus, I also want to try some kinky, hot monster sex. Can’t have my sis showing me up.” She added, making everyone listening sweatdrop, before continuing towards you. “I’ll hold back on accidentally soul bonding like you, though.”

“Carina!”

“accidentally soul bonding, you say? didn't think that was possible.” Papyrus commented in a drawl, looking at you in curious interest.

“Well, it is. Though certain side effects are making me act weird or know things I shouldn’t.” You said, trying to see how to broach the subject with the person who was unknowingly your brother-in-law.

“how so?” He asked, fixing his stare on you.

“Time travel?” You sister suggested and he went stiff.

“tell me about it.”

“Ooo! He seems to know about time traveling stuff.” Carina said, having interpreted his body language as fast as you. “Why didn’t you tell me I was hitting on your hubby?”

“Ok, how did you go from time traveling shenanigans to _that_!” you shot back after barely containing another spit take. 

“You remember. He seems to know stuff. And he approached us, not the other way around. Plus, you were staring.”

“Ok, no. Just because we both seem to know about time shenanigans it doesn’t mean we would both be soulbond. Plus, you totally got the wrong skeleton and I have no guaranties he even remembers my existence to there’s that!”

“Wait…” Carina started.

“wrong _skeleton_? ” Papyrus finished, staring you down.

In the moments that followed, your only thoughts were ‘ _Oh fuck!_ ’.

“So…” Your sisters started. Looking as serious as a grave. “How _do_ skeletons fuck?” She asked completely breaking the sudden tension.

“Carina!!!”

“i really don’t want a mental image of my brother doing _that_! ” Papyrus joined your protests.

“Your brother?” Carina asked.

“unless there are other skeletons hiding somewhere, me and my brother are the only ones.” Papyrus explained, and then turned towards you with a glint in his eyes. “that being said, i do want to know more about this ‘accidental’ soulbond you were talking about.” He drawled menacingly.

“Erm… I supposed Sans never did get to talk to you before…” You couldn’t bring yourself to finish that line.

“i remember he wanted to talk about something but we were called to the podium.” Papyrus reluctantly admitted.

“Yeah. We, uh… We’d only been dating for a couple of months before… that.” You said. “We’d decided to keep it secret until everything about monster rights was settled. People are pretty capable of very underhanded things when they reject change and our relationship was sure to be used _against_ all that we were fighting for. We had to be pretty secretive and that made dating harder, but…” You smiled nostalgically over what little you did remember. “you know how Sans is when he really wants something. It had only supposed to be temporary but time just kept passing without us noticing… Anyway, long story short: we were having some soul play and he got startled by my sister’s neighbors and fell on me. Our souls were between up and got smooshed together and we somehow bonded. End of story.”

“Don’t forget your two day long visit to hanky panky town, population: you and mister Skellybones.”

“Carina!!!” You protested as Papyrus blurted out. “two days!?”

“Anyway, I really wanted to meet you, if anything to at least come clean about it. I was hoping to see Sans first, though.” You said. “Then again, the order of things is already messed up. What, with we already having bond-” You felt a sudden sharp pain in your chest, your very soul, as if something had attacked it. “Sans’ in trouble!” You said in a rush.

You fled the café as fast as you could. Searching for your mate frantically. You only hoped that, whatever it was, you got there on time.


	6. Chapter 5: Just Scattered Pieces Of Who I Am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans' POV and Miranda temporarily transforms into a BAMF

\--Sans’ POV--

 

When Sans woke up in the underground in his old room he thought that his months up above had been a dream. _That_ , he could have dealt with. But then there was Miranda.

The thought that he might have completely dreamed her up and that he’d never see her again because she was a figment of his imagination cut him deep.

The first day after what he’d initially called ‘the dream’, he pretty much had two moods. He was either depressed because the most perfect, beautiful person that ever existed might have been nothing but a dream or, after he checked his soul and saw the bond, impatient and not being able to stand still because either he went back in time or his soul was trying to tell him his mate was out there and he had to reach her somehow.

He searched the whole underground for a way out and found nothing.

He went back into a depressive state at being unable to go anything, with a few impatient searches here and there. He was going crazy at his inability to do anything when he decided to go visit Papyrus at his outpost and saw Chara.

He hadn’t forgotten them, of course, but he’d been so focused on his bonded mate that, aside from wondering how long until Chara fell into the underground, Sans barely spared them any thought. The fact that he only had to wait one day cheered him up considerably. And if he could somehow rush Chara’s stay, maybe he could see Miranda sooner. 

Didn’t work but one couldn’t fault a man for trying, now could they?

And that had led to now.

Sans knew he’d fought Chara before time went back. He didn’t feel the need to do so now, though he did go through the motions of trying to capture Chara. He may have rushed the process a bit, but the last thing he wanted was to somehow botch up Chara’s attempt at saving the underground by acting too different from before. That meant having to fight them again.

He started the same monologue as he had done the first time around but it felt half-hearted at best and Sans didn’t do half-hearted. He would take a shot at somewhat truthful.

“HUMAN, PLEASE IGNORE MY SPEECH UP UNTIL NOW. I ALREADY KNOW YOU’RE MY FRIEND. I DON’T NEED TO FIGHT YOU TO CONVINCE MYSELF THAT I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT YOU. BESIDES, IT’S NOT AS IF IT WOULD STOP YOU FROM GOING FORWARD. YOU ARE TOO DETERMINED FOR THAT. LET US AGREE NOT TO FIGHT, SHALL WE?” Sans asked.

“Really? What about the Royal Guard?” Chara asked, looking a bit out of depth.

“OH, THERE ARE PLENTY OF WAYS TO GET TO BE A MEMBER. JUST PROMISE YOU’LL REMAIN MY FRIEND AND WE’LL BE FINE.”

“Oh, ok-” Chara, who’d been smiling kindly until then, suddenly froze mid movement

Their expression changed to an emotionless one and the overall feel around them was different in a way Sans couldn’t quite put his phalange on.

“You seem to know more than you should.” They said in a voice that seemed unused to talking as their hands twisted into the shapes of sign language, saying the same thing.

“CHARA?” Sans asked uneasily, though he sensed it wasn’t Chara talking to him.

“No. Chara’s asleep now. I wouldn’t want them to ruin my fun, now would I?”

“ERM…”

“You’ve never remembered before. I wonder what’s different this time…”

“BEFORE!?”

“When Chara turned back time, silly.” The human, whoever they were, stood ready for a fight. “Now let’s fight. I want to see what’s different.”

Before Sans could get properly ready, the human attacked, slashing the air with pink leather gloves. He was barely able to block the attack and ended up losing half of his HP due to his distraction.

Sans only had 1HP. It was a disability that he’d lived with through all of his life. When he decided he wanted to join the Royal Guard, he started learning ways to only lose a fraction of his HP with each hit. He made an art out of it. Had he not been distracted, he would have guarded himself better and would only have lost 0,01 point.

He wouldn’t commit the same mistake. Not again. Not now that he had so much to lose.

He didn’t understand what was wrong, why his friend was acting and talking like someone else, but he wouldn’t let himself get killed off just like that.

His soul flared to life and the yellow thickened, turning from a mist to golden flames.

All of a sudden, he felt his bondmate’s soul connect to his and he felt energized. Good! All he needed was to knock the human out, not kill them, even if they were trying to kill _him_.

He fought with all he had but he soon realized that the human was far too good at dodging. Perhaps even better than his brother. And they weren’t failing any hits. The gloves they were wearing were slowly tearing down his defenses. With one final strike, he felt his head detach from his shoulders. He was too in shock to even feel the pain.

As he saw his own body dissipating, all he could think of was how was he supposed to hug Miranda without arms and a chest. It was only after that silly thought that he realized he wouldn’t even be getting a chance to see her again. He was going to die, no way around it. He saw the human standing there looking down on him, still expressionless, before his eyes blurred. 

His last impression of movement was a grey blur screaming in rage hitting Chara, or the human, and a spray of something red before everything went black.

He woke up again, waiting in the snow for Chara. It took a while for him to get his bearings before he saw Chara show up again.

And again, it wasn’t Chara looking at him through those eyes.

“How did you kill me? You were dead.” They asked, sounding curious.

“I DIDN’T! I’M NOT LIKE YOU!” He bravely replied.

“Nevermind. I’ll find out one way or the other.”

And this time the human was the one drawing him into the battle, not the other way around.

But this time Sans was ready. And he wouldn’t fall down so easily.

 

\--Your POV--

 

You rushed as hard as you could to find your bonded mate. You didn’t know where he was and that only made you panic harder. You took a wrong turn into more parts of the town. You ran back, past your sister and Papyrus. You then ran past a house that you remembered Sans had shown you in a photo. Your soul was flaring harder and harder with every hit you felt him take.

Finally, you crossed a small sandstorm and saw him facing Chara. Before you could properly realize what was going on, you saw his head detach from his body and his body turning to dust as his poor soul strained itself and the strength of your bond to keep him alive.

As you saw both his head and his soul slowly dissipating into dust, rage filled your very being. Before you could even consider your actions, you felt your body move instinctively as you were filled with anger and justice. you took off one of your shoes and slammed it down, thin heel first, into the teen’s head. You didn’t even notice you weren’t the only one attacking them. You never even had the time to realize it since the moment your heel buried itself deep into Chara’s brain, the world went dark.

After a moment, you realized you were back in the café, Papyrus already sitting with you.

“Your brother!?” Carina asked.

The conversation was very familiar but you didn’t exactly feel the need to allocate it.

Just as Papyrus started to reply, you interrupted.

“It happened again!” You said urgently.

“What?” Carina asked and Papyrus stared.

“Timeskip.” You elucidate them. “It wasn’t me. It was Chara all along! I have to go! Now!”

“Why? What happened?”

“If I don’t go now, I’ll find myself in a position of having to commit murder.” You said darkly. “And I’ll do it gladly.”

“Miranda! Murderous rage is my thing! Not yours! What’s the matter with you?”

“They killed him!” You told her. “And I won’t let it happen again!”

With that said, you rushed off, with or without them. This time you knew where to go. this time you knew what you would see.

There were a number of things you were beginning to realize, especially as you started to feel your bonded mate’s soul being attacked much sooner than before.

 **One:** Chara was behind the time travel.

 **Two:** Killing them would result in instant timeskip to another moment in the past. Which one was yet to be seen, since the first one had gone back to just before Chara going missing and the other to a few minutes in the past.

 **Three:** Chara was clarly aware of what happened the previous time, going by the fact they started attacking Sans sooner so you needed to attack them differently if Sans happened to die again to force another timeskip.

You rushed into the sandstorm that clouded your vision for a while. You were filled with relief when you saw Sans still alive. He wasn’t doing too well, though. Even though you had set off earlier, Chara had also started the attack earlier too.

You took off your heels to be faster on your feet and dashed forwards just as Sans was, no doubt, about to receive the finishing blow.

You slammed both heels on each side of Chara’s legs in a painful, but non-lethal, injury that managed to stop their attack from happening.

Before the teen could punch you, you sped to Sans’ side.

He looked at you in fascinated disbelief before collapsing into unconsciousness due to his exhaustion.

“Who are you?” the teen asked, but the voice didn’t sound like Chara’s at all. It was a symptom painfully familiar to your past.

“Miranda Castro, a Portuguese lawyer staying in America for a while and, right now, someone you don’t want to piss off even further. And you?” You replied without moving an inch from your defensive stance.

“Chara.” They effortlessly lied.

“Nope. You’re not. You may share a body but you could never be them.” You affirmed, completely certain.

“You’re bonded.” The kid said, ignoring your claims completely, staring at your soul.

“You’re a psychopath.” You said matter-of-fact-ly noticing that Carina and Papyrus had arrived.

The kid raised and eyebrow at you.

“Oh, sorry. I thought we were stating obvious things about each other now.” You said mockingly and not sorry at all.

“You can’t kill me.” They said confidently.

“I know.” You said calmly. “You’ll just go back in time if I do.”

“So, what will you do?” They smirked condescendingly, the first real emotion to cross their face.

“I’ll fight you for my mate!” You said.

“WHAT!?” You heard from behind you but didn’t dare to turn your back on the kid.

“Whoa! Cool battle axe!” Carina commented looking behind you and you could guess who it was.

“Captain Alphys! Sans told me a lot about you. Can you please take him to safety? I’m a bit tied up at the moment.” You said.

“Erm… but you’re a human!” She said, sounding confused at your willingness at saving a monster.

“Indeed! Now that we’ve ascertained that everything’s alright with your vision, can you please-” but you were interrupted by the kid’s sudden attack.

You used one of your heels to parry and kicked at their stomach in return. Your shoe got pulverized by the blow. You had to find a way to neutralize them as fast as possible without killing them. You just had to find a way to do it soon.

And you still didn’t know if they could go back in time by other means other than killing themselves. Best chance you had was to knock them out and keep them that way. A sole shoe definitely wasn’t prepared for the task.

You discarded your remaining shoe and took off your scarf. It was mostly ornamental, rather than providing heat but you figured it would do for what you currently wanted it for.

The kid directed another punch at you and you dodged it a bit clumsily. You then looped the scarf around their neck while they were recovering from their loss of balance over your last minute dodging, and then you pulled it from behind their back, chocking them.

The sound of someone choking and, even worse, knowing they were just a kid, made you feel sick to your stomach, but you held on until they stopped struggling.

“K-keep them unconscious.” You told the others.

You then threw up and, finally, let yourself go unconscious from the shock of everything.

At least now you know Sans was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this during the summer when I didn't have my computer around and had to write in paper. I won't be continuing it so soon. I want to finish _Not Alone_ first and then I want to continue _Unbreakable_ before starting on this one. I might occasionally update a new chapter, but don't count on it. I would like your opinions on this so far, though.


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